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Bhupesh Baghel, Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot will be sworn in as the new Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, respectively on December 17.
Gehlot will take oath of office at 10 am in Jaipur followed by Nath at 1 pm and Baghel at 4 pm. Former Member of Parliament (MP) and Congress's Rajasthan unit chief Sachin Pilot will take oath as the state's Deputy Chief Minister.
Congress announced Baghel’s nomination as the third Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on December 15, a day after it announced Gehlot as the next CM of Rajasthan. The Rahul Gandhi-led party had announced Nath as the next Madhya Pradesh CM on December 14.
Who is attending?
Congress President Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh are expected to attend all three swearing-in ceremonies.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu might also attend all three ceremonies, according to a PTI report.
Opposition leaders such as former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav are also likely to attend the ceremonies.
Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader Sharad Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s MK Stalin and senior leader Kanimozhi, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s Hemant Soren, Janata Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) (JVM-P)’s Babulal Marandi and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF)’s Badruddin Ajmal may also attend the programmes.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh is also expected to attend Gehlot’s swearing-in ceremony in Jaipur. In what was seen as a major positive development for the opposition, AAP National Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had attended the opposition meeting in the capital on December 10. Singh’s attendance comes at a time when AAP and Congress are trying to set aside differences and push for a united opposition to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for Delhi's Lok Sabha elections next year.
Who’s not attending?
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will not be attending the programmes. Instead, she will be represented by senior party leader Dinesh Trivedi in Bhopal.
Despite providing crucial support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav are unlikely to attend the ceremonies.
On December 11-12, assembly election results had yielded a win for the Congress in the three ‘Hindi heartland’ states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. K Chandrashekar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) retained power in India’s newest state Telangana with a thumping majority. The Mizo National Front led by Zoramthanga, defeated Congress in its last Northeast bastion.
In Rajasthan, Congress won 99 seats in the 200-member assembly thus requiring support from other parties such as the BSP.
In Madhya Pradesh, Congress won 114 seats, two short of getting a simple majority. There too, Congress required the support of BSP and other parties. In Chhattisgarh however, Congress won 68 out of the 90 seats in the state assembly.
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